Short Summary
Elysabeth Eldering is the award-winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her passion is supplementing a social studies curriculum with a fun, entertaining and educational series that helps students learn more about the fifty states, information that is not found in textbooks but supports a national standard by use of study guides.
Each book represents one state and is written like a handheld game that gives the characters clues about the state, asking readers to guess along with the characters which state is being described. The clues can go from hard to easy and everything in between. Some students, depending on how much they know about the United States at the time of the reading, may guess the state early; some may not know the state until the last clue is given - the state bird or flower and the state capital.
The study guide supplements the book in that it provides more in-depth projects like research and discussion questions based on a few of the clues in the book, science projects, map/math skills, craft projects, secret message puzzles, and a trivia game that covers the entire book.
What We Need & What You Get
Each book costs $500 for the illustrator to do 30 illustrations, the cover, the layout and design. With 50 books in the series, that is $25,000 right there. My goal is to have all 50 books completed and published within 10 years of beginning this campaign.
The rest of the money raised would help cover printing costs and allow the author to participate in special school oriented events such as Social Studies Council conferences, teachers' and librarians' conferences, and homeschool conferences. Travel and booth rental can be high.
The Impact
I would really love to see this series go national and to see books in schools around the United States being used to supplement social studies curricula in third through sixth grades.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't make a contribution but refer 10 people who can, I will send you a signed copy of my middle grade/young adult mystery, geared for 10 and up ages, written very similar to a Nancy Drew mystery, FINALLY HOME.